BOEM initiates environmental review for Maryland wind farm
By:
Tom Russell
07/06/2022
DOI
The Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) announced plans to conduct an environmental review of
the first proposed wind energy project offshore Maryland. This week, the
Department will publish a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) submitted
by US Wind, LLC (US Wind).
The lease area is approximately 10 nautical miles off the coast of Ocean
City, Maryland, and approximately nine nautical miles offshore Sussex County,
Delaware. If approved, the development and construction phases of the US
Wind project could support up to an estimated 2,679 jobs annually over
seven years.
The publication of the NOI opens a 30-day public comment period to 8 July
2022 as part of the process to help BOEM determine the scope of its environmental
review.
US Wind’s proposal includes the construction and operation of an offshore
wind project with a total capacity between 1,100 and 2,000 MW of electricity
to the Delmarva Peninsula, which could power as many as 650,000 homes in
Delaware, Maryland and Virginia each year.
The wind farm will include the installation of up to 121 turbines, up to
four offshore substation platforms, one meteorological tower and up to
four offshore export cable corridors, which are planned to make landfall
at 3 R’s Beach or Tower Road in the Delaware Seashore State Park in Rehoboth
Beach, Delaware.
The NOI public comment period will help identify what BOEM should consider
as part of its environmental review of US Wind’s COP. Throughout the scoping
process, multiple opportunities exist to help BOEM determine the resources
and issues, impact-producing factors, reasonable alternatives and potential
mitigating measures that should be analyzed in the EIS.
During the public comment period, BOEM will hold three virtual public scoping
meetings to inform the preparation of the EIS. Registration for the virtual
public meetings and detailed information about the proposed wind energy
facility, including how to comment, can be found on BOEM’s website.
